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You've written the resignation speech in your head three times this week on your drive home. When you get there, you scroll the job boards, only to see how quiet hiring feels, and talk yourself back into staying.
Plenty of people are making the same call: median employee tenure rose to 4.1 years in January 2026, and fewer workers are in their first year at a new job. Waiting out a shaky market can be the smart move, as long as you know what you're waiting for. Knowing when it's time to change jobs comes down to two separate questions: whether the problem is really the job, and whether this is the right moment to leave.
David Sluss has spent decades watching people wrestle with that first question. A management consultant turned organizational behavior professor, he studies how careers take shape and teaches executives to manage theirs.
Across all of it, he's noticed the same habit: People treat a bad week as a verdict on the whole job. His fix is to pause and ask what the frustration means for your career. "Think, okay, what does this really mean for me?" he says.
About the expert
David Sluss is a professor of management (leadership and organizational behavior) at the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University. A former partner in a management training consulting firm, he trained leaders at Cisco Systems and other fast-scaling tech companies before earning his Ph.D. at Arizona State University. He has taught at the University of South Carolina, Georgia Tech, and ESSEC Business School in France, led executive education programs in about 25 countries, and written for Harvard Business Review on leadership.
Signs it's time to change jobs
Some signs point to a job that's run its course, especially when more than one shows up at once:
- You've stopped learning. You could do the work half-asleep, and nobody is offering anything new.
- Your pay is stuck while your workload grows. The raises stopped, but the extra tasks keep coming.
- You can't see a next step. You can't name a promotion, a new skill, or a project you're working toward.
- The stress outlasts your days off. A weekend or a vacation doesn't reset it anymore.
- You're asked to cross a line. Anything unsafe, unethical, or illegal is a reason to start planning your exit now.
► Your next step: Count how many of these signs fit your job right now, and write down one specific example for each. Concrete examples make it easier to tell a pattern from a bad week.
How to tell a bad job from a bad month
Many of those signs can also show up during a rough month, so one bad stretch isn't enough to go on. Everyday friction is the easiest to misread, Sluss says. A coworker snaps at you on a bad day, and it feels like a sign. "A lot of times they're just symptoms of deeper issues," he says.
Researchers who study turnover call the moment that makes you want to walk out a "shock" or a "jolt," and they can trigger a sudden resignation, especially if resentment has already been building. Often, though, a jolt is emotional and temporary. Say you took a job for a specific product, shift, or team, and you get moved a few months in. That could feel like a major jolt. Sluss's advice is to stay open long enough to see whether the new role still lets you grow.
"The big mistake is just letting the little thing blow up and causing you to leave quickly," Sluss says. Quick is relative, he adds. You might stew for two or three months, but if you never checked whether the problem keeps happening, the decision was still rushed.
Talking it through with people you trust helps, but watch how you frame it. Saying to your partner or a friend, "I'm thinking of leaving, can we talk about that?" opens a real conversation. Telling them "I'm leaving" is what Sluss calls an identity statement, and once you've made one, you start discounting evidence that you should stay.
► Your next step: Write down the moment that made you want to quit and the date it happened, and don't announce anything yet. If something like it happens again within two weeks, you might be noticing a trend.
Four questions to ask before you decide
Sluss's test for whether a job still works for you comes down to four questions. Answer them based on the last few months, not your worst week:
- Am I still learning? You're picking up new skills, new responsibilities, or at least new problems to solve.
- Is this job opening up my network? You're meeting people who could help you grow, inside or outside the company.
- Am I adding value, and does anyone see it? Your work matters to the team, and the people who make decisions know it.
- Do I still enjoy it? That covers the tasks, the people, and how you feel about the work overall.
One "no" is normal in almost any job. "Two or three nos is saying, okay, you're getting to the point that you need to think about the next stop," Sluss says. That next stop could be a promotion, a lateral move, or a new employer. Before you assume it's the last one, ask a follow-up: Can you fix any of these where you are?
Keep the list handy, too. Sluss recommends running the same four questions on any new offer before you accept it.
► Your next step: Answer all four questions in writing this week, with a yes or no and one sentence on why. If you get two or more nos, circle the ones you think you could change without leaving.
Consider an internal move first
Before you leave your employer, check whether a different job inside it would fix the problem. Sluss has been surprised how often the executives he coaches haven't looked at other functions or divisions in their own company. "Something about us as human beings, we just think zero-one," he says. "We think we're either in or we're out."
At a large company, that might mean moving from finance to HR, a path he's watched people take. In hourly roles, it could be a new shift, a new site, or a lead spot on another team. If you work through a staffing agency, a new assignment works the same way: You keep your employer and change the job.
If the job itself can still work, you can also reshape it. Sluss calls this job crafting: adding or dropping tasks, building different relationships at work, or rethinking what the work means to you. How you see the work and who you seek out are up to you, but changing your tasks usually takes a conversation with your manager.
Crafting also helps if you keep putting off the decision. Ask a friend who knows you well to help you figure out why you're stalling. If there's still work worth doing where you are, Sluss says, job craft. If it's fear of the unknown, take one concrete step toward leaving. "Both need action," he says.
► Your next step: Spend 15 minutes on your company's internal job board this week, or write down one task you'd add and one you'd drop and bring it to your manager.
When is it time to change jobs? Check your field and your finances
Part of your calculus needs to be about whether your market, savings, and career history can support a move. Right now, the market is sending mixed signals. Fewer people are quitting, with the quits rate holding at 1.9% in August 2026. But switching still tends to pay: workers who changed jobs saw 4.7% wage growth in February, compared with 3.6% for those who stayed.
Sluss weighs four things before he'd tell anyone to go.
- Demand in your field. Sluss looks past your bank account to how much demand there is for your specific kind of work. Someone in a hot area like AI can move quickly. Someone in a shrinking field may need to hold on longer. Check the job outlook for your occupation before you decide.
- Your savings runway. "A three-month backup may be enough in a hot job, but it may not be enough in something that's not growing," Sluss says. In a slower field, he'd plan for closer to nine months if you leave before you have an offer.
- Your career story. Think about how this exit will read next to your other jobs. One short stint after several longer ones is easy to explain, Sluss says. Two or three short stints in a row are harder. What counts as short depends on your field, too: median tenure ranges from 2.4 years in leisure and hospitality to 5.0 years in financial activities.
- Whether you can wait. Sluss's default is to start looking, but stay employed while you look so you don't end up with a gap. "Most people can put up with some bad stuff for a little while," he says. "If it's untenable, then yes, move on." Anything unsafe, unethical, or abusive falls in that second category.
► Your next step: Count how many months of expenses your savings could cover, then search open roles in your field to see how much demand there is right now.
How to job search while you're still employed
Searching for a new job while you're still employed keeps your income steady, but it takes discretion. Sluss adds three cautions.
Keep managers out of the loop. Even a manager who's also a friend has responsibilities to the company, so telling them puts them in a bind. "Usually, keep it confidential yourself," Sluss says.
Line up references from past jobs. You usually can't list your current boss, so reach out to former managers and coworkers now.
Apply selectively. "The more applications you send out, the less it's going to be confidential," Sluss says. A recruiter at a staffing agency can help you focus on a short list of roles that fit.
► Your next step: Move your resume, job alerts, and job board accounts to a personal email and device this week.
Making the right call at the right time
Knowing when it's time to change jobs usually comes down to a pattern. You've stopped learning, your work goes unnoticed, or the job drains you, and that's been true for months rather than one bad week. Meanwhile, employers in your field are hiring, and you have enough savings to move without panic. If the problem turns out to be your whole field, changing careers may be the bigger move.
When you're ready to look, connect with a Kelly recruiter who can tell you what demand looks like for your skills and help you search without broadcasting it.